Government & Politics

“Healthy Kids Iowa” -- a new program announced Wednesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds -- will provide qualifying families with $40 worth of food per child per month in June, July and August. It replaces a summer food program that Reynolds opted out of. It would have provided $29 million in federal food assistance funding for an estimated 240,000 children in the state.

At least one key lawmaker believes a property tax reform bill still has a chance to pass into law before Iowa legislators complete their work for the year, which could happen soon.

Timely construction of the $275M Cedar Crossing Casino & Entertainment facility is contingent on the case’s conclusion.

Nate Willems, from Anamosa and now living in Mount Vernon, served in the Iowa House for two terms from 2008 to 2012 and works for Rush & Nicholson PLC in Cedar Rapids.

In addition to $10 million Iowa paid two siblings of a teenage girl who died of starvation in the care of her adoptive parents in 2017, the state has agreed to pay a third sibling $4.2 million after being “severely physically abused, neglected, and tortured.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds, who appointed Cournoyer last year to the role, said in a statement she is “proud to endorse” Cournoyer’s campaign, calling her “a true fiscal conservative with a strong record of improving government efficiencies and accountability.”

One day after state senators advanced an education budget bill starving Iowa’s public universities of any general aid increase in the coming year, the Iowa House advanced its own package cutting general education support by the amount each university was spending on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. But unlike the Senate version, the House would increase some support for other regent initiatives and for community colleges.

The store would sell a variety of perishable and nonperishable food items in one of the areas most affected by the closure of the First Avenue Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids.